Daniel Brett launched a powerful discussion on the Greens in an earlier posting
(number 17293, linked below) which I think might be continued here, especially as Luther Blissett messed it up, the eejit.

It looks as though, as result of that discussion, and in particular the election this week of Jean Lambert MEP to the Green/EFA Bureau, he has resigned from the Green Party. I must say I have some sympathy with that stand, having done the same myself many years ago. At some point you have to shout stop.

On the other hand, Matt argues in effect that you need to be inside the tent pissing out, to be able to have some influence on the corrupting process inside. Sad to say that is always the argument of those who sell out in the end. We should be inside the tent with great reluctance, continually passing messages to those on the outside, not pissing on them. At some point, the hypocrisy gets too much, and it's time to leave, and start again, ie: now! What we have learned from our last visit should be applied to our next one. I would now argue that the Greens are all but done as an ecological party, having sold out as a NIMBY type environmental party, which feels we need to keep the peasants abroad under control, to protect our privilege and comfort. That approach may well find a political constituency, made up of selfish middle class types. Consequently, it reinforces the system, prevents change, and is therefore simply wrong.

To return to the Green/EFA Group for a moment, Daniel and everyone else need to understand another thing. He berates the German Greens for their support of the war. However, give them some credit for being honest, although in reality their system forces them to declare their position. What are the French Greens doing - is not France supplying military support, while they are in government. Have a good look around Europe, and see what Greens in Government are doing, in Belgium, Finland. The Swedish Greens have supported a minority government, but I cannot imagine they supported the government on the war, or…?

So when it comes to the Green/EFA Group, you should know that a large majority supported the war in a special vote, which was at least more honest than saying nothing about the Kosovo war at the time. The Germans alone are not the problem. Greens throughout Europe have sold out. And it is a measure of the transparency of the Greens in the European Parliament that this is not widely known, even within the member parties. So you can metaphorically tear up that position statement on their website, along with the rest of the rubbish on there.

Anyway, environment is an important issue to the survival of life on this planet, including human kind, but it is not the only issue. It is now well and truly on the political agenda, and the Greens have served their purpose. Why flog a dead horse? Let's move on, and base our politics around other issue as well as ecology, say transparency, direct democracy, localisation, simplification of our enormously complex systems (which actually makes democracy impossible), etc etc.